Montreign Casino and Resort

When New York State granted licenses for three casinos to be constructed in locations across the state, A.H. Harris was tracking and awaiting their official release. The Montreign Casino and Resort in Monticello, NY began the initial stages of construction. L.P. Ciminelli, the acting General contractor and Construction Manager, selected William H. Lane as the Concrete Contractor to complete the cast-in-place concrete portion of the project. This included a four story underground parking garage, the casino gambling floor and the hotel.

Due to the complexity of most of the areas of this project, meetings were held prior to its start date of January 1, 2016, to discuss: the contractors’ expectations, pour sequencing, and formwork design. From the very first pour of this project, it has offered A.H. Harris the opportunity to show our customers the variety of options available by choosing us.

Some of the challenges faced at the beginning of this project were the height of the walls and, more importantly, the shape of the walls. The Parking Garage walls consist of concrete corbels that will be used to support the precast deck panels. Multiple design options were completed to differentiate us from the competition, and after reviewing all of them the use of foam panels became the preferred option. This would reduce the amount of formwork supplied and reduce countless man hours by speeding up the construction process. This design allowed for pouring the wall’s full height and forming both corbels simultaneously. A.H. Harris collaborated with Shelter Enterprises so that the foam panels would have a plywood face on both sides of the foam. The addition of the plywood to the foam panels allowed them to be securely fastened to the formwork for the panels to be stripped and reused as the contractor progressed down the walls.

The design of these foam panels became more intricate when a change in the project caused the corbel between piers to slope with no consistency. The foam panels had to be designed to fit each unique shape, with removal or adjustment as minimal as possible for the next pour. A successful mock pour green lighted the production of the panels and William H. Lane approved the formwork being shipped to the site. As a result 60,000 square feet of formwork was delivered to the job site. This set a new level for A.H. Harris for the amount of formwork on site for a project.

As some areas of this project were completed and new areas were started, new challenges occurred. One of the challenges, which typically occur on any large projects, is to supply the customer with the proper equipment and reduce the amount of unused equipment on site. Material lists were created, for both additional materials needed for each area and for equipment no longer in use for completed areas. Currently Lane has completed the walls for the Parking Garage, continuing work on the Retaining Walls and will start pouring the foundation walls for the Hotel and Loading Dock. The Retaining Walls on this project set another new record for A.H. Harris by reaching heights of 44’; making them the tallest wall completed using A.H. Harris owned equipment.

As this project continues new challenges will arise, but through the partnership and combined efforts of William H. Lane and A.H. Harris, these challenges will be met and resolved to keep this project effectively progressing. A.H. Harris employees involved in this project are as follows: John Adams (Account Manager), Peter Yaklin (FSD Specialist), Curtis Molloy, Fred Fielder and Richard Johnson of the FSD Technical Group, Russ Tooker (FSD Project manager), Christina Mihaly (Rental Administrator).

About A.H. Harris

Founded in 1916, A.H. Harris supplies high-quality construction products and equipment for contractors, construction companies and government entities in the concrete construction, repair & restoration, road & bridge, rebar & rebar fabrication, waterproofing and glazing markets. We represent 500+ manufacturers and over 13,000 products. With over 600 experienced team members, a multitude of delivery options and over 50 convenient locations in 14 states, we have what you need, when and where you need it.